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Bay Area Arts and Entertainment BlogFri, 13 Feb 2015 21:27:43 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1Review: NKOTBSB in San Josehttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2011/07/03/review-nkotbsb-in-san-jose/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2011/07/03/review-nkotbsb-in-san-jose/#commentsSun, 03 Jul 2011 09:46:55 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2011/07/03/review-nkotbsb-in-san-jose/By Jim Harrington Lisa Picazo bought more than a ticket to a concert. The 43-year-old San Jose resident purchased transport on a de facto time machine, one that took her straight back to her high school years and memories of… Continue Reading →]]>
Similar reactions could be seen throughout the building, as the 12,000-strong crowd – which seemed to consist of, roughly, 11,896 females – relived its past in glorious fashion during this boy-band doubleheader, featuring both the New Kids and the Backstreet Boys.
That this local stop on the NKOTBSB trek – a clever tour name that incorporates both the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) and the Backstreet Boys (BSB) – turned out to be a first-rate production, one of the most brilliantly designed major pop spectacles seen in years, was almost a bonus.
This was a show that, while outstanding in the moment, succeeded first and foremost due to memories from the cherished distant past.
There were very few “new” fans to be seen – ones that might’ve learned about the bands from this year’s joint CD “NKOTBSB.” Instead, the house was filled with folks like Bianca Avila, a 31-year-old Walnut Creek resident who remembered all the New Kid posters on the walls of her childhood room, and Lisa Styers-Aiello, a 37-year-old Brentwood resident who recalled having her parents drive her to New Kids concerts. (The Backstreet Boys also had plenty of supporters – they just obviously weren’t sitting near me.)
Styers-Aiello reckons that she and her friend - 31-year-old friend Carrie Chavez from Turlock, who was also in attendance in San Jose – have seen the New Kids some 40 times over the last 25 years. They’ve spent countless dollars traveling all over the Western States to watch the New Kids in concert – and they say it’s been well worth it.
“We’d rather have this experience, and relive our teen years, than have shoes in our closets,” Styers-Aiello says. “Some people have shoes and handbags – we have the New Kids.”
Better than that – they had both the New Kids and the Backstreet Boys, sometimes sharing the stage at the same time. The concert opened in high style as all nine musicians-dancers - five Kids and four Boys – appeared on an elevated platform, slowly lowered to the main stage, and performed a medley of New Kid’s fairly recent “Single,” the Backstreet oldie “The One” and, believe it or not, Coldplay’s triumphant “Viva la Vida.”
What followed was pretty much nonstop action – razzle that truly dazzled – as the groups took turns performing onstage. The tradeoff was so blindingly quick and efficient, with one production number ending and another beginning mere seconds later, that it was sometimes hard to distinguish the Boys from the Kids. Or maybe it was just me – since the rabid fans, many of whom carried signs in support of their favorite players, seemed right in step with the action.
Each side of this boy-band equation did equally well on the live stage. The performers – some of whom, like their fans, are now in their 40s – looked and sounded great as they moved through all the old fan favorites, such as “Step by Step” (NKOTB) and “Shape of My Heart” (BSB). Their dance moves, a mix of pelvic thrusts, hip-hop steps and Broadway showmanship, were also quite solid, as the two bands worked mostly on a long catwalk that extended from the main stage to a smaller platform at the back of the arena floor.
It was a performance worth remembering, which these fans undoubtedly will do for some time to come.
Read Jim Harrington’s Concert Blog at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/concerts/. Follow him at http://twitter.com/jimthecritic.]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2011/07/03/review-nkotbsb-in-san-jose/feed/21Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys And Others Throw A Farewell Party For “TRL”http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/14/beyonce-justin-timberlake-and-others-throw-a-party-for-trl/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/14/beyonce-justin-timberlake-and-others-throw-a-party-for-trl/#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2008 23:58:28 +0000Chuck Barneyhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/tvfreak/?p=1951

The Daly Show: Carson with Britney Spears during the heyday of “TRL” The screaming kids. The red-hot stars. The chart-topping hits. For its devoted viewers, MTV’s “Total Request Live” â€” or “TRL” â€” was a generational touchstone. For former host… Continue Reading →

]]>The Daly Show: Carson with Britney Spears during the heyday of "TRL"
The screaming kids. The red-hot stars. The chart-topping hits. For its devoted viewers, MTV's "Total Request Live" â€” or "TRL" â€” was a generational touchstone. For former host Carson Daly it was a lifestyle.
"It became so much more than a TV gig," he recalls. "I spent more time behind that famous glass window than I did in my apartment. I treated it like my living room and that's the way it felt."
He's referring to MTV's second-story Times Square studio where the likes of Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, N' Sync, Christina Aguilera and many others routinely dropped by to schmooze with him and peddle their latest wares. From 1998 to 2003. Daly, serving as a much cooler version of Ryan Seacrest, presided over the interactive video countdown show as it grew into a colossal hit.
Alas, Daly left to take command of his own late-night talk show on NBC. In the years since his departure, "TRL," under an ever-changing roster of hosts, gradually lost much of its relevance and its audience. And now MTV is pulling the plug on the show, but not before a glitzy farewell special Sunday night.
Scheduled to perform are Beyonce, 50 Cent, the Backstreet Boys and Fall Out Boy. Other big names, including Justin Timberlake, have promised to drop by and reminisce. Daly will return to mark the send-off, along with current "TRL" host Damien Fahey.
"I'm expecting a party-like atmosphere," Daly says. "For me, it's going to be like going
to my high school reunion."
A party-like atmosphere is what "TRL" was all about during Daly's reign. After modest beginnings, the show blew up big right about the time boy bands and pop princesses became all the rage. And "TRL" became the place where stars were born.
"We had so many lightning bolts going off at the same time," Daly says. "It was the perfect storm."
Never mind that critics often blasted "TRL" for its blatant commercialism, or that the deadpan Daly was skewered on "Saturday Night Live" as being a "tool." For many young Americans, "TRL" was a can't-miss daily dose of madness.
How crazy did it get? Appearances by big acts such as the Backstreet Boys or Eminem would turn Times Square into a giant mosh pit.
"Thousands of kids showed up, and we would literally shut down the crossroads of the world," Daly says. "I'd get calls from angry people because it took them two hours to get home."
Among Daly's most memorable "TRL" moments is the day in 2001 when Mariah Carey burst onto the set unannounced, wearing a baggy T-shirt and pushing an ice cream cart. She began hugging fans and babbling about how this was her "therapy session."
"It was very weird, but I just went with it," Daly says.
A much more somber moment occurred only three days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when "TRL" was one of the first television shows to resume production.
"At first we were thinking that we absolutely wouldn't go back that early â€” that television just isn't important right now," he says. "But we also realized we were a comforting place for young people. There was no screaming and yelling. We became more of a counseling session. We opened the phone lines and talked. It was kind of cathartic."
These days, "TRL" is no longer the mecca of teen coolness, most likely because kids no longer have to rush home from school to catch the premiere of the new Lil' Wayne video when, at any minute, it will be available on YouTube or iTunes. (So did Internet kill the video star?).
Moreover, in recent years, BET's "106 & Park," with a similar countdown format, has trounced "TRL" in the ratings. And MTV, the so-called music channel, has become more obsessed with reality shows.
"I don't watch it that much anymore. I guess I'm a little old," Daly says. "I'll flip around once in a while and catch a couple minutes of 'The Hills,' but I feel like a pedophile. I feel a little dirty."
Daly is "bummed out" by the demise of "TRL," but takes heart in the fact that producers have claimed the show is only going on hiatus. The plan now is for it to return someday in revamped form.
"It's just time for it to go away and take a little nap," he says.
Then again, there could be an alternative plan in the works â€” especially if Daly finds himself getting caught up in the frenzy of Sunday's finale.
"Maybe I'll go rogue," he says. "Maybe I'll announce that I'm coming back, and we're not stopping this thing."]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/14/beyonce-justin-timberlake-and-others-throw-a-party-for-trl/feed/3britneycarson